


Pretend

by Lord_Of_The_Erasers



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 13:17:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13435506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Of_The_Erasers/pseuds/Lord_Of_The_Erasers
Summary: Some ghosts from the past haunted Herah





	Pretend

**Author's Note:**

> Headcanon for slave-qunari Inquisitor

The sky was black when those human came to her house, burned it.

Her dad’s face was red with blood when he was walked away. His eyes had lingered on her before it was covered by a piece of cloth, of a nearby dead woman.

It was dawn when Herah woke up, and she found herself in _a cage_. There were people looking at her in excitement and disgustion and she didn’t understand what they said, what they were.

What they did to her.

It didn’t take Herah long to realize what happend. There was another qunari, barely sixteen with a scar ran down her cheek explaining the previous night’s attack to some elves. Probably slaves.

The Adaar girl didn’t ask about her father. She knew him couldn’t make it.

 

Later, a man in armor came in. He wore the brightest and scariest armor Herah had ever seen; she wondered if she could have one before being pulled out of the shelter. Her crimson eyes widened with fear and she tried her best to keep her body steady. The man didn’t move, either but his eyes fixed on the slave mark between her shoulder blades.  He ordered a soldier behind him with a command voice:

_“I’ll take this one. Burn this place. Don’t let anyone alive.”_

The sky was dark when the warehouse drowned in fire, just like her house.

 

It was day when Herah learned how to fight, to serve as a soldier from her master.

It was night when Herah learned how to seduce women from his wife.

It was both day and night when Herah found herself getting trapped in this damn life.

 

There were qunari came across the city. Herah had heard other servants whispered that one of the deadliest mercenary group was here for recruiting.

It was a chance. And she took it.

No one knew who she was. What they knew was another soldier ready to die for coins.

Herah wasn’t, but she _pretended_ to.

 

Her job was paid well and she used most of her money to buy books and materials; the leader, Shokrakar owned the weapons so she didn’t need to buy any. Every night, Herah read under the dim light of candle when everyone else was sleeping. Most of the books were about wars and tactics, some were about literature of Orlais and Antiva, some were love stories that the qunari tried her best not to burn into ashes and wondered why she bought them.

They were her favorite ones

 

Sometimes, in the tavern, when other qunari got drunk and fought, Herah thought about those days being used as a “present” in exchange for power and support. She had slept with countless ladies and duchesses, both Fereldan and Orlesian as it was something so usually that she felt herself dirty like a whore.  

 _A royal whore_ Herah thought, before a random woman leaded her upstairs.

 

It had been years since she joined the merc and her reputation had spreaded all over Thedas, not only as a cold-blood warrior but also a jerk who fucked every single girl she saw. Shokrakar and other qunari had joked about that until they saw a man insulted Herah; his eyes were black from endless punch, and his bones broke as a result of being thrown from the bridge down the river.

No one dared to talk about that again in front of the Adaar woman anymore.

 

Those rumor followed her even when Herah became the Inquisitor. Everyone avoided that as much as she did, but between talk and whisper, the qunari knew what they said, what they believed.

Cassandra and Bull had to stop her from killing a human knight in Skyhold. He screamed in Herah’s darkened face, told her that she had been nothing but a whore, that he knew everything about her past.

Unfortunatedly, he was right, and Herah locked herself  in her room for days until Vivienne broke the wooden door.

 _“ You think hiding from all of this is the best?”_  They eyes locked, and Herah felt like that girl in the cage again, full of horror and fear. _“Don’t let them judge you because of your past, darling. It is what the weak do, and you are not weak.”_ Her voice softened and the mage pulled her in a hug. Herah was both surprised and overwhelming. And for the first time after years of _running_ and _fighting_ and _hiding_ , she _cried_.

She was anything but strong and brave. But Herah _pretended_ to, as she usually did.  


End file.
